BY ALAN TEMPLE – @CCP_Sport
HIBERNIAN head coach Neil Lennon reckons the Championship title race will be effectively over if his side defeat Morton tonight.
The Hibees host Jim Duffy’s men knowing that a win would see them roar 13 points clear of the Greenock outfit and Falkirk, with just six matches left to play.
And the Northern Irishman is adamant it would require a capitulation of mammoth proportions for them not to finish the job.
Asked whether a triumph would see them seal the title, Lennon said: “I think so.
“Psychologically, I would imagine it would take the mother of all collapses for us to give anyone a sniff.
“We have earned the right. We have been pretty consistent, although there have been a few bumps along the way.
“But if we are going to win the game we will need to play very strongly. Morton will come here on the back of a disappointing defeat against Dunfermline to put one over on us. They have had a great season and they are a very difficult team to play against.”
Should Lennon ultimately lead the capital club back to the top flight, he admits he will look back on a “frustrating” but “enjoyable” campaign in a Championship that proved more competitive than he anticipated when he took the role last summer.
He said: “It has been a pressure but I have enjoyed and the challenge.
“It has been frustrating at times and the division has been harder than I thought because it was so competitive.
“The expectation was that we would skoosh this league by twenty points. That was never going to be the case. We are in double digits now in terms of a lead and that is pretty healthy. In games where they haven’t been their best they have ground out results and sometimes that is what you need.
“Last season we lost eight games and that is a quarter of the season playing that type of football. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. We have to find a balance in mixing it up at times.”
